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Sunday, October 27, 2013

The ACC- Missionary Diocese
of Congo is pleased to thank all who have contributed for its development by
granting projects and prayers through the Missionary Society of Saint Paul,
Anglican Aid Abroad, the ACC-Traditional Anglican Church of Canada, and the Diocese
of the South. Thanks for their assistances.

I thank those who have
assisted me during my ordination and consecration as the first Bishop Ordinary
of the Missionary Diocese of Congo: Archbishop Mark Haverland, Bishop Damien
Mead, Bishop Alan Kenyon-Hore, Father David Marriott, Father Robert Mansfield’s
Parish, Holy Guardian Angel Parish- Lantana, Father Lock and his Parish Good
Shepherd -Palm Bay,
and Father Gregory Wassen. God bless all.

The year 2012 in the Anglican Catholic Church- Missionary Diocese of Congo
was characterized by three great events: the consecration of the first Bishop
Ordinary of the diocese; the sad event of the lose of some congregations situated in dangerous
areas of the Province where the militias and rebels are making the law
specially the mountain of Mitumba and Equatorial forest. The diocese has lost
22 churches from four parishes situated in dangerous zone or areas (Equatorial
forest) which had 1,287 Christians (adults and many children) who have fled
their villages to look for a safe place in other territories of the Province; 2
Missions of 92 faithful in the towns of Kinshasa and Goma lack a deacon or
priest to conduct church services. As you know our work is mainly centred in the villages and
townships, which have high unemployment, poverty and many social problems
created by the long war which has disturbed the population who have lost family
members, their jobs and properties. Apart from poverty, which is the common
situation of the Church in the poor countries, the Missionary Diocese of Congo
has a particular [difficulty] which is the war. With war nothing can be done
because people throw off balance and live with despair. This requires the
diocese to have many possibilities for trying to lift the development’s level.

A new rebellion against the
Congolese government was launched in April 2012 in eastern DRC. The insurgent
group is known as the M23 and is thought to comprise around 600 fighters, the
core of whom formerly belonged to Tutsi rebel group called the National Congress
for the Defense of People (CNDP). According to a recent United Nations
report, the M23 has received significant military, financial and political
support from senior members of the Rwandan and Ugandan’s governments, including
the country’s Minister of Defense and Chief of Defense staff. Rwandan and
Ugandan support has included provision of weapons, ammunition and soldiers to
the rebellion.

The FARDC focus on the rebellion has created a
security vacuum elsewhere. In certain parts of North and South
Kivu this has allowed other armed groups, such as the Democratic
Forces for Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels and the local militia groups,
to regain territory and in some cases attack new areas. Many persons outside
DR-Congo think that the war of Congo
is tribal war but it is not that. The common thread of the violence is the
presence of mineral wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in
North and South- Kivu provinces where the ACC (Anglican Catholic Church) work
is based. The wars officially ended in 2003, but today more than 3 million
persons live as refugees in their own country. Armed groups continue to spread
terror as they fight for control of and access to mineral resources. Women and girls even children are raped every
day; militias use rape as a new weapon of war, destroying communities and
targeting women, the backbone of Congolese society. Tens thousands of women and
girls have been victims of sexual violence in the DR-Congo. Attacks are common,
and access to medical and psychological support is very limited. In this issue
the Missionary Diocese of Congo thanks the Diocese of South in the USA through
Berry’s family who has been able to fund the opening of Clinic in the village
of Mosho, also the ACC- District “Traditional Anglican Church of Canada” has
founded two raped girls with sewing machines to offer new hope.

To be priest or
Bishop in the most dangerous place in the world; it is to put your life in
danger; Because since 1996, more than 6 million persons have died from
war-related causes as government and rebel militias have fought to control the
mineral-rich region’s mines. Countless women have been raped. Local communities
have been terrorized and sometimes razed. As ministers of God, we are obliged
to save the souls of many people because there are numerous religious groups
that are continually stealing people away from Christian faith and church
tradition. Once a person is captured by any such cult, it is very difficult to
reach him or her with the gospel, yet we must reach them because Christ died
for them too. Time after time it is either a young or a new believer who is
deceived by false cults. Once such people enter the cult, they are blinded so
much by the cult's seductive arguments and materials that they become almost
insulated from the Gospel message. Praying on the immature, the young, and the
uninformed is a very common trick, and this is why Paul exhorted his listeners
to grow as soon as possible to a sufficient level of spiritual maturity. He
says, “That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive (Ephesians 4:14).”

Most active members
of false cults have a very dedicated religious life, and they are very serious
about their spiritual duties. This is another reason why we should definitely
be concerned about the salvation of people who belong to different false cults;
most of them are sincere, but are in the trap of a lie. The lie of the group
that salvation is fully secure for them keeps them away from the gospel even
though they are sincere. However, introducing the gospel to people ensnared by
the cults is not an easy task. Anyone who is interested in reaching them with
the gospel should be willing to invest a good amount of time and energy at the
preparatory stage itself, and much more after that.

There are a
difference between the Evangelization in most African Countries and Western
countries:

-
Like DR- Congo, Cameroun, Rwanda,
Kenya, South Africa
and Soudan most of our churches are going to be evangelized and established by us
leaders, that means we start for nothing to get the possibility to open a
church in the village, township or town. This is contrary for the Western
countries where many churches join the ACC with some means necessary to be
called a church.

-
The majorities of our
members are from false cults and poverty areas which need more teachings and
seminars to remove the false teachings they had from their previous churches.

-
The poverty is a common
issue for the churches situated in poor countries, but in DR-Congo add the
fighting in some areas of our country to make break of work in certain areas.
We could concentrate our efforts on the town and townships where seem to be
safe but we don’t have income to get plots of land or rent houses.

-
In the poor countries we
observe the massive participation of local people in their desire to hear the
Word of the Lord is one encouraging point, because this is the very mission of
the church as we read in Matthew 28:19-20. What is needed is an investment in
the poor countries where the ACC is already an established means to provide
them with the necessary means for the development of the church in all aspects
(economic, social and infrastructure).

-
The work of evangelization we are doing cannot
be achieved without your participation and assistance, especially as this time
our countries are split by the poverty and wars. One dollar you give is a big
contribution for our work in Africa.

The step of after the Ordination and Consecration of the first Bishop
Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church, Missionary Diocese of Congo has made
the church to start the period of maturation because Bishop, Priests, deacons
and laymen, each where he works, he is obliged to take over the church’s
activities. The
Missionary Diocese of Congo is the very heart which beats at the centre of Africa: the strategic launch pad for the growth and
development of the ACC in the black world, and in particular the French
speaking countries, when we take account of the human and economic potential
which is here. The massive participation of local people in their desire to
hear the Word of the Lord and to join the ACC is one encouraging point, because
this is the very mission of the church as we read in Matthew 28:19-20. Even if Your Grace
Archbishop Haverland has called the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo the
most dangerous place in the world, the Church is growing; the diocese is well
established in the Province of South Kivu where the size is four times the size of
Republics of Rwanda and Burundi
combined. The Church is going to be established in other provinces of the
country Kasai Oriental with 5 parishes, Katanga one parish and Maniema one
parish. We have 4 Archdeaconries divided into 6 deaneries, 22 parishes and 33
congregations, with a total of 1,657 faithful (adults and children).

We need your prayer that God sends peace in
the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighbour countries. We beseech our
partners of the ACC-OP dioceses, parishes, individual, Anglican Aid Abroad and
Missionary Society of Saint Paul to hold hands with us.

Thanks
God bless all

For
the ACC- Missionary Diocese of Congo

+The
Right Reverend Steven AYULE-MILENGE

Bishop
Ordinary

(Editor's note: Financial contributions can be sent through the Mission Fund of the Diocese of the South, ACC-OP.)

The
Epistle and Gospel readings appointed for this feast say nothing directly about
the two apostles whom we are celebrating, but speak only in a general way of
what it means to be an Apostle and by implication, what it means to be an
apostolic church. But these selections are remarkable for the degree of
contrast between them.

The
Gospel reading from John 15 (words uttered in the upper room the night before
our Lord’s arrest and crucifixion at a time when Simon and Jude were present),
strikes a solemn note and hardly sounds like good news at all. Jesus tells us
that His followers are in for a hard time. “If the world hate you … If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Christians have no right to expect to be
popular. Persecution is our normal
state. “The tyrant’s brandished steel,
the lion’s gory mane” did not come to a
halt when the Roman emperor Constantine became a Christian.

We all
should be aware of the cruel persecutions which Christians today suffer in
Islamic countries. In one principal ally of the Unites States. Christian
worship is prohibited and it is illegal even to own a Bible. The sufferings of the Christian communities
in Egypt, Iran and Iraq are well documented, even if barely known among Christians here. But such persecution of Christians is far
from unknown in our own country.

The
reading from the Epistle to the Ephesians, however, tells the rest of the
story. To be a Christian is a great privilege, even in a non-Christian world,
even in a secular society, where our Lord is still held up to ridicule, and
where the Gospel is the faith, it seems, of a shrinking minority.

Paul
was speaking of us when he wrote “no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow-citizens of the saints, members of the household of God.” In this great text, Paul reminds us that we are no longer what we
used to be, strangers and foreigners to the kingdom of God. Our faith, our new birth, our incorporation
into Christ make us true members of His body,

Has
given us a special status which separates us from the sinful world in which we
yet live. In this kingdom of God we are fellow-citizens with Abraham, Moses,
David, Simon and Jude, Peter and Paul, with the blessed Mother, and all the
rest. Paul and his first readers knew the value of citizenship. We are citizens
of a kingdom greater than Rome or the USA, or any earthly kingdom. But better than this, we have been adopted
even into the royal family, the household of God Himself. LKW

Saturday, October 12, 2013

The reaction to the king's kind invitation, bidding people to attend the
wedding of his son, reminds me of the fifth seal in the Book of Revelation:”And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them
that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And
they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost
thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white
robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their
brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled (Rev. 6:9-11).”

When the guests who were invited snub him, and refuse his invitation, and then
persecute the messengers of his gracious invitation to the death, the king
becomes "wroth." His judgment falls on those murderers, and he sends
his army to slay them. The word "wroth" is, of course, a form of the
word "wrath." In many passages of scripture we read about the wrath
of God. What is the wrath of God?

To answer that, we look at the image of God in this parable. The king
represents God, and the invitation represents the proclamation of his mercy
offered in the Gospel. The invitation is to attend "the marriage supper of
the Lamb" (Rev.19:9), the marriage feast of the King's Son. The image in
the parable includes the obvious implications of forgiveness of sin (purchased
by that Son on the sacrificial altar of the cross, and his resurrection that
destroys death), showing that the heart of the king is generous, benevolent and
gracious. "God is good."

When the invited people refuse this kindness, and persecute his messengers,
they incur his wrath. The king has not changed, the people have. His principles
are solid and unmoving. His wrath comes from the same heart as his generosity.
Of course, the wrath of God is not exactly like the wrath of this king, for the
king is a man who changes due to emotion. This brings up a very ancient doctrine of the Church, and the term for that doctrine is Divine Impassibility: It means that God does not change. In fact, as our own Anglican Article I teaches, he is "without passions." Some modern theologians object to this, and insist that the scriptures present to us an emotional God who makes up his mind by reacting to events. They see metaphorical language as literal, forgetting that God has revealed his word to our minds by use of our own language. Emotion includes motion, that is movement and change. But, God does not change. The king in today's Gospel appears to
be moved, sometimes by anger and sometimes by his own generosity. Unlike God,
this king can be surprised, because he does not know all things before they
happen. But, he is in the story only to represent God as an imperfect human
illustration, a character who is metaphorical in nature. God's wrath is itself
a metaphor. What it means is that you stand on one side of the line or the
other, either accepting his kind and gracious offer in the Gospel of his Son,
or you refuse that offer and side with the world, the flesh and the Devil.
Because God never changes, you stand either on the side ofwrath or on the side of mercy.

Look at the word that the king uses when he must have his bouncers kick out an
impolite guest: "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding
garment?" This word, "friend", seems rather odd. In fact, it
means that this impolite guest, the one who refused the wedding garment (that
is, refused the vestment handed out by the king's servants at the door) in a
gesture of disrespect, was in some way beloved of the king. That is what it
means that he was called "friend" (ἑταῖρος, hetairos).
The same word is used later in this same Gospel (Matthew) when
Jesus addresses the traitor Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And
Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they,
and laid hands on Jesus, and took him (Matt. 26:50).”

What could better demonstrate that the Impassibility of God is consistent with
the fact that God is love? (I John 4:8, 16) He does not change. Jesus loved
Judas, even knowing that the man was a devil, the traitor, for whom it would
have been good had he never been born. Jesus was not changed toward Judas,
though Judas had renounced him, had abandoned his apostolic office to betray
him to the death. "Friend, wherefore art thou come?"

The king casts the impolite and contemptuous guest out of his palace because
that man had placed himself beyond the reach of the king's generous and
gracious nature. The man did not need to buy some expensive garment, because it
was the host of such a feast who provided these garments, outer garments or
vestments, at the door. And, in polite society it was expected that a guest
would put the garment on over his own clothes.”The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly,
as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and
wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof (Rom. 13:12-14) .”

We are told to "put on Christ." But, first we are instructed to cast
off the works of the flesh. Everything is provided for us. We put on Christ by
hearing the word of God, remembering that in Hebrew the word for
"hear" is the same word as "obey." We put on Christ by
staying within his Church. We put on Christ by hearty repentance and true
faith. We put on Christ by the sacraments that are generally necessary to
salvation. We put on Christ by cooperating with the Holy Spirit who forms
within us the virtues, above all charity. This is the life of faith, belief in
what God has revealed as true.

All the parts of the life of faith are gifts of God, provided like the wedding
garment given to each guest. We are invited and granted mercy and grace, to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, to be partakers of the
divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
We are given everything we need so that we become behind in no gift; waiting
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you are called in Christ, to become
saints in Christ, so live in Christ, having been baptized into his death unto
sin, and in whom you live unto righteousness.If you refuse the invitation, or if you come to the feast but refuse the
gracious provision of the king, it is your choice, never understanding the
heart of one who calls you "friend." Above all, from the cross he has
called you "friend." Do not turn from his love. Put on the Lord Jesus
Christ.

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Ephesians 4:17-32 * Matthew
9:1-8

But that ye may know that the Son of
man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the
palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

It may appear
strange that Jesus addressed the need of a sick man, in fact a completely
paralyzed man, by speaking an ever so bold absolution: “Thy sins be forgiven
thee.” The Pharisees thought he was blaspheming, because their religious system
allowed no man to speak so boldly. They figured that we may hope for
forgiveness of sins, but they were offended by the bold declaration that any
particular individual’s sins actually have been forgiven. That much faith was
more than they could swallow. Today people may find the words of Jesus to be an
affront to their sensitivities, wondering how He could address a suffering
person about sin. They might assume it is fine to feel empathy, to address the
obvious visible needs of a man paralyzed.

But, Jesus addressed the man’s
spiritual and moral need first and foremost, because that is most important.
The highest priority of all is to have a fully restored and meaningful
communion with God, to be reconciled to God and to be free from any hindrance
in that fellowship that is the highest priority, that knowledge of God before
which even the fear of death yields and retreats. Compared to that greatest
need of all, mere paralysis is trivial. So is blindness, deafness, and even
premature death, all of them among the many conditions that Jesus healed as
“with power” He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of
the devil (Acts 10:38).”

Right now, just like the offended
Pharisees, many people would like very much to have a religion in which the
subject of forgiveness never comes up, because the seriousness of sin is
treated as either non-existent, or as trivial. They want a more “spiritual”
religion, and they even use the word “spiritual” or “spirituality” because it
is non-threatening. It has, in modern times, no moral significance whatsoever.

If that is the kind of religion you
want, the kind that allows you to flatter yourself and convince yourself that
you are righteous, wise and “spiritual” - whatever you imagine that the word is
supposed to mean- then you are in the wrong church. The Book of Common Prayer
has a General Confession of Sin in every major service, followed by Absolution
that a priest declares (if one is present), and that is because we must
approach God based on the truth, not based on our own feeling or our
self-appraisal. Furthermore, if you want a religion that flatters you and makes
you feel affirmed and tells you how wonderful you are, you should avoid the Book
of Common Prayer, yes, but even more so never, ever, under any circumstances,
read your Bible.

The wisdom of the Book of Common
Prayer, all of which comes from the Bible (as anyone can see, anyone who
actually knows the Bible), is that it approaches God always based on His
revelation of himself, and of His Gospel, that He has given for all people for
all times. If you must ask the origin of any portion of the Book of Common
Prayer, or wonder where it came from, then you should “read, mark, learn and
inwardly digest” the Bible more often and more thoroughly. Otherwise, you would
see the words in the Prayer Book, and know where they came from; they have all
come right out of the Bible, ultimately, as the actual source (and that
includes the content of the Creeds). And, among them you would recall the words
of Jesus, quoted in Morning Prayer as we begin:

“The hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him (St.
John iv. 23).”

You cannot
worship God in spirit by flattering yourself that you are “spiritual,” because
the spirit that pleases God is one of humility. And, you cannot worship God in
truth without acknowledging the truth He has revealed as He has revealed it.
Once upon a time I was concerned about the spiritual malady called
“self-righteousness” as merely a problem of hypocrisy. I have become aware of a
deeper kind of self-righteousness, and that is the kind that is delusional.
Some individuals, despite the clear words of Scripture in which God speaks to
us even now, really believe in their own righteousness. That delusion is a
sickness worse than paralysis, and one that will create a wall of division
separating a person from communion with God, and from communion or fellowship
within His Church among His people.

We see this
delusion expressed as a doctrine among some Fundamentalists who openly say. “I was a sinner, but now I am a saint.”
But, Saint Paul
said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief (I Tim. 1:15).”
He was a saint, but he did not say, “Of whom I was chief,” past tense:
He said, “Of whom I am chief,” Present tense. The Doctrinal formula for
this is Simul Iustus Et Peccator. That is, "simultaneously just
(righteous) and a sinner." At best, that is the condition we are in as we
walk through this life.

Taking St. Paul’s words from I Corinthians 15:20-22,
we see this in terms of our ultimate hope, the sure and certain hope of the
resurrection on the Last Day:

“But now is
Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Ultimately, if
we are in Christ and live in Him, we will live by Him, drawing our whole life
from His immortal resurrected life, risen from the dead, and glorified with Him
as “partakers of the Divine nature (II Peter 1:4).” But, we are not there yet.
Right now we are in two fathers. In Adam we die, and in Christ we live. That
is, we live in the reality of Simul Iustus Et Peccator. There is, in
this life in this world, no escaping the mortal condition we have in Adam, nor
is there any escaping the need to pray as our Prayer Book guides us, confessing
our sins as we approach the Holy God on His throne. But, because the other fact
is also completely true for all who believe, we really do approach His throne
with boldness because we are “in Christ.”

“Now where remission of [sins] is,
there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he
hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And
having an high priest over the house of God; Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is
faithful that promised (Heb. 10:18-22).”

This is what Martin Luther meant when
he said to sin boldly. He did not mean to be bold in how you sin, nor did he
mean that you should presume to live in willful unrepentant sin (for, that is
the way to death); rather he meant that you should be bold about entering God’s
presence with faith, because in Christ you are truly justified. You may enter
just as the writer to the Hebrews says, with boldness, and that is not boldness
for just any old reason. You do not enter with boldness into God’s presence
because you see yourself as righteous, wise and spiritual. You enter in “with
full assurance of faith,” only because you have been granted entrance into the
most Holy Place
before the throne of God “by the blood of Jesus.” That alone is how you have
been granted entrance, and that alone is why you are accepted – in Him.

Our Confession of Sin is not morbid. It
is not gloomy. It is not the Confession of people living in terror of the
grave, unsure if they have enough merits for eternal life (which, you may be
sure, no one has; not even the people with word “Saint” placed before their
names). Our Confession of sin is based on our certain faith in God’s love and
forgiveness, not because we feel that he is forgiving, but because, in fact,
Jesus Christ died for our sins and reconciled us to the Father. And, in fact,
He rose from the dead so that we may live in Him, now and forever, eventually,
on that glorious Day, shedding what it means to be “in Adam” and taking on only
what it means to be “in Christ.”

We worship God in spirit and in truth,
if we grasp the meaning of today’s Collect:

O God, forasmuch as without thee we are
not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all
things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

That comes
directly from the words of Jesus:

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).”

So, just as Jesus began by speaking
words of Absolution, and healing the soul of the paralyzed man before meeting
his physical need, I will continue to address, in my preaching, the true
diagnosis of what ails us all. Along with that, I will continue to proclaim
God’s revealed prognosis for everyone who takes the medicine He prescribes: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive.”

Friday, October 04, 2013

Late
in Trinity Season the Prayer Book gives us a series of six Sundays with
readings from Paul’s great Epistle "to the Ephesians." We spend as much time with this Epistle as
the entire season of Lent. We place quotation marks around the words “to the
Ephesians” because the manuscripts leave the address blank and our best guess
is that Paul wrote this letter to the Christian community at Ephesus as a
circular letter to all the churches of the region.

Today’s
selection is full of practical wisdom, including the beloved memory verse, “be
ye kind one to another.” But practical
wisdom is frequently expressed in mysterious language, “that ye put off the old
man,’ and “put on the new man.” These
explicit directions have challenged the translators to come up with words which
make more sense. Here are a few
attempts: “Put off
your old nature ,... put on the new nature.” (RSV) “Put off the old self, put
on the new self.” (ESV), or “leaving your former way of life, you must be made
new in mind and spirit” (NEB).

What
Paul was getting at in this contrast of old and new, was the familiar contrast
of Adam and Christ, “As in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Adam, “the old man” is the fallen sinful human race,” but Christ, the
virgin-born “new man,” inaugurated a new humanity. These respectively stand for the old and new
creations.

But
more practically speaking, the old Man and new Man refer to each of us, both
before and after we become one with Christ through faith in Him. Paul speaks
quite graphically, of stripping off and putting on, as we strip off soiled
clothing and put on new garments. He frequently speaks of “putting on”
Christ as our clothing. The baptismal
liturgy of the ancient Church carried this out ceremonially by giving the newly
baptized a special white garment. There was a charming trace of this in the
white baptismal dresses which used to be used at christenings.

Paul
never suggests that this transformation from old to new man, from Adam to
Christ, is an instantaneous event or (much less) the result of some program of
moral self-improvement. Bluntly, we are told here to “become what you
are.” You are already new men and women
in Christ: now it is for us to become Christ-like. People have a way of becoming like the
clothes they wear. Our behavior and our life-style are shaped by the way we
treat our bodies or clothe ourselves.

In the
world of the Bible, a person could be identified by his garb. It is still the
case that a Christian can be identified by his Christ-likeness. If we wear Christ as a garment, the world
will see Him in us and us in Him. LKW

Pages

Words Worth Reading

“Evangelism is to so present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that men might come to trust Him as Savior and serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of His church.”

William Temple, the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury (1942–44)

"My single appeal will be to the Holy Scriptures. And yet, I am sure that it will be hard to gain entrance to ears and minds already filled, unfortunately, with a prejudiced opinion." - Niceta of Remesiana (335-415), a Serbian bishop of old